A strange year on the Normandy
by TheLonelySeeker
Summary: I started writing this after ME2 'cause I didn't like the ingame romance between FemShep and Garrus, but soon I got lost into it and my imagination went wild. A ShepxGarrus love story, together they'll try to save the day uniting all peoples of the galaxy, believing that friendship and love can make a difference. Set between the ending of ME2 and the beginning of ME3. No DLCs.
1. Chapter 1

1. THAT NIGHT ON THE NORMANDY

It was evening aboard the Normandy. Or rather, it was evening by the ship's clock because there was neither dusk at nightfall, nor the singing of crickets announcing the end of the day. Even the observatories always offered the same view: a dark curtain covered with light spots.

Commander Shepard was sitting in her cabin staring at her dinner but she wasn't a bit hungry; although recently, thanks to the consignment of high-quality food coming from the Citadel, cooking on the Normandy had improved remarkably. Now, dinner-time was no longer a mere occasion to scoff at poor Rupert, the cook, who until recently had had to deal with dried amino acids and artificial flavours. Now every evening the crew met in the mess room, chatting cheerfully, eating, entertaining themselves with gossip, and getting to know each other. But for a long time now Robin Shepard, Commander of the Normandy, had preferred to have her meals alone in her room. Not that she disliked the company of her crew; the brilliant career and intergalactic fame -she was, after all, the woman who had stopped Saren and saved the Citadel- hadn't changed her modesty. It was just that she had always felt more comfortable when by herself, the silence permitting her to sift through her thoughts with greater clarity. She was a severe leader, but at the same time a kind friend to everybody.

That night she went out defeated by her lack of appetite, and headed for the Starboard Observation Room. She needed meditation and wanted to try to emulate Samara, the old wise asari Matriarch. Robin opened the door and found that the room was empty. She had hoped for this because she needed silence and solitude to look inside her heart. Kaidan, the man she had loved unconditionally for about a year, had watched her with eyes full of scorn and judged her bluntly. He had thought she was dead after the attack on the old Normandy, and now, after two years, he had treated her with coldness. She knew it was because she was now working with Cerberus, once part of the Systems Alliance but now an independent organization, one whose past actions were quite questionable...

Robin Shepard and Kaidan Alenko had fought together against Cerberus many times in the past, and now he couldn't stand seeing her working with a criminal syndicate. But it was Cerberus who had rescued her from death, and which was moving against the Collectors with no expense spared and no shortage of money to spend. It was Cerberus and Shepard, not Alenko...Alenko, who went strutting around in his military uniform encrusted with medals, knowing very little about Collectors and Reapers. _If it weren't for me, he would now be paralyzed and held prisoner inside a pod,_ thought Robin, overwhelmed by a wave of rage. But the rage was short-lived; now she was a powerful biotic, her body full of eezo, so had learned to control her emotions better than when she had been just a soldier. She had mastered breathing slowly until she felt that the energy rising inside her, ready to explode in a shockwave, was under control.

Primarily, she didn't want to damage the Normandy. The frigate was vital to the mission; she was upgrading it with a lot of effort, spending a great deal of money and resources. And it was home. After two years spent on an operating table, she had found herself in a new body and on a new Normandy. At first, everything had seemed so strange. She missed the old crew, as well as her old ship, on which she'd lived the best moments of her life. But soon the new Normandy had become a familiar and comfortable place. She particularly enjoyed the solitude and the calming effect of the room she currently occupied, with its placid view of the stars. Shepard always found it easier to meditate here than anywhere else on the ship.

From the depth of that moment of eternity, where she found peace and serenity, her mind offered her the image of a beloved face. The face was smiling and kind, the face of somebody who, in spite of it all, had always been there for her and with her, fighting with courage and loyalty by her side. A feeling of warmth overwhelmed her, and two tears rolled down her faintly illuminated cheeks.  
"Garrus..." she said, in a very low voice.

She'd known it within herself for a long time, and now that she'd found the courage to become consciously aware of it, she wasn't afraid anymore. 'Obstacles are monsters coming to life from our fears' she told herself. This was a good battle philosophy, but feelings were not so simple. Nonetheless, her heart was sure that he, too, felt the same. They were one, and they understood each other without a word; just a subtle nod of the head, a quick look, and each knew what the other was thinking. The two of them, Robin Shepard and Garrus Vakarian, were a show in battle, like two dancers moving in sync with months of rehearsals behind them; many crew members had noticed this synchronicity, and her dear friend Liara had noticed too. But what about him? He was, as always, friendly and helpful. The rational side of her brain told Robin that a love story with him was impossible, she being a human, he a turian; amino acids even conspired against them. And yet...

Her heart had already sent her into the wrong man's arms, and if she'd been able to withstand those cold words from Alenko, she could never manage to hear them from Garrus. The turian was one of the few members of the old crew that she had managed to find, and bring aboard the new Normandy. Whenever she was near him, she felt an intense desire to caress his leonine face, disfigured by wounds of battle, made of hard and spiky skin plaques; it was strange that she found an alien so different from her, so non-humanoid, so compelling..._ But what I am thinking? I have a crew of extraordinary people every other starship commander would like to have; they're all counting on me, I must prepare for a suicide mission, and I'm here tormenting myself with romantic fantasies_.

"Shepard, it's time for you to go to your cabin and prepare the maps for tomorrow's route... that's an order!" she barked aloud to herself. The expression on her face became resolute and impenetrable again as she got up, straightened her back, and walked towards the elevator. There was still much to do, many missions to be carried out before the departure to the Omega-4 portal. There was no time to lose.

There were no unread messages, so she began to plot a travel plan for the following day, giving priority to the most pressing missions, while trying to optimize time and costs. Her eyes gazed at the charming black-haired fellow who was watching her from the edges of the picture frame. "Don't bother me, Alenko!" she said, laying the picture face-down. The face that had always been so dear and full of human warmth seemed to have now changed expression, yet it was only a picture; how could it change? She had spent hours and hours in the past staring at that image, sometimes just to find the courage to face a very dangerous mission. But it was a long time now since she'd forgotten it on a corner of her desk, only a piece of furniture, an ornament full of dust.

She turned off the computer. As always, like every single day of her life prior, she had done her duty, but hadn't the slightest sign of sleepiness. Her favorite casual dress, dungarees and suede, her only souvenir of life in the colonies, was still in the laundry, and the synthetic fabric suit caused in her a great desire to take a shower.

It was already midnight when she came out refreshed and wearing a dressing gown.  
But she was not prepared for the surprise that was waiting outside the bathroom: an embarrassed turian with a bottle of cheap wine in his hand...her turian!

"Garrus!"

Robin had often invited him to her cabin for a dinner or a drink together, but he always declined, politely, always pulling out a new excuse. She had hoped it was because of shyness, but at last she had grown tired of the situation, hurt by the continuous rejection, and had stopped inviting him.

"I thought perhaps a drink...well, if you want...I know it's a bit late, but I saw you going down in the cab, I'm not sleepy either, so...have you had dinner?" He was starting to babble; it was rather cute, Robin thought.

She blushed, watching the untouched food that was on the table. "Well, no, how did you know?" she said, trying to look playful. "You realize I had to prepare things for tomorrow, but now I'm very hungry. Come, sit down." Suddenly the squid gumbo became tempting, even if it was cold; she realized she actually had hunger cramps "If I weren't sure to cause you a belly ache, I'd tell you to taste this, it's good... would you like to uncork the wine?"

"Sure, it's...uh...the best I could afford with my vigilante's salary, I hope it is good."

Robin suddenly thought that in some cases having the thick skin of a turian, which prevented them from blushing the color of a boiled lobster, could be a great blessing.

"I thought you didn't enjoy my company" she said with a slight frown as she chewed her meal. She wanted to embarrass him for all the rejections she had gotten in the past and to take revenge. His next words were all she had hoped to hear from him.

"Who, me? No!... I mean yes! ... It's just that you're you, you're Shepard, and I didn't want the whole crew to get strange ideas about us. You know this ship, it's like a small town, you don't have time to think about something that everyone already knows, I didn't want to cause you any trouble..." he rambled, staring stubbornly at the wine in his glass.

In actuality, Garrus had long considered an intimate relationship with Robin, but had always restrained himself for fear of spoiling their wonderful friendship. Then, too, he feared the racist reaction from some crew members, which could endanger the mission. He knew nothing was more important than the mission now.

"You're very kind, Garrus, but I'm not embarrassed at the thought that everyone knows ... I mean, that everyone believes it..." she said, with a reassuring but mischievous smile.

Garrus realized he had fallen into her trap, so decided to give tit for tat. "You are very kind, Shepard, but you are the most admired woman of the universe, and certainly the most desirable, even if you don't realize it. You're modest, among other things, and I ... I knew women had a thing for scarred men, didn't know you were one of them." He smiled, but then his look became serious and gloomy. "Lately everything I've done's gone wrong. I feel like a failed turian; I just want something to go right, just once, just..."

"Garrus" she interrupted abruptly "you're talking about scars? Have you ever looked at my face?" she smiled, getting up and approaching him. "You're the only one I could ever count on in this whole damn galaxy, the only one who's always been by my side without judging me. You're my strength, and I could never do what I'm going to do without you."

Robin thought, again, that if Garrus' skin had not been an inch thick, it would be turning dark purple, but soon after realized that it was she who had fallen into his trap. He'd pulled out of her mouth the words he most wanted to hear from her.

"Of course you could, but not as stylishly!" he said, satisfied.

"Here comes Garrulus" Robin said with a smile. She was aware that, had she not taken the opportunity that evening, God only knew when and if another occasion would present itself. This situation called for bold action. He was already standing up, ready to leave, so she approached him and began caressing his mouth with a finger. "You know, I've always wondered if you turians had soft lips beneath this thick rind."

He held his breath, took her hand and turned it away gently. "Yes, we do! Otherwise, how could we articulate words? Having a thick skin does not mean having no mucosae, and plus, then what would we do, express ourselves with noises?" He smiled, trying to hide his excitement.

_What do you want from me Shepard? Just kiss a turian out of curiosity? Or you just want to 'blow off steam' with a friend?_

Robin moved her beautiful face closer and tapped his lips with hers, but he suddenly withdrew from her. "Shepard, a kiss is something very important for turians ... if we kiss someone, well, it's only for real love!"

Here! The darkest demons showed themselves to Shepard in all their ugliness; what she most feared was now painfully real. She felt her heart stop beating and her eyes fill with tears.

"Sorry Garrus, I thought that you...I was so sure of it...please don't go away, pretend that nothing happened, I need you..." she said, fighting against the sobs (after all, she was Shepard and she could not start crying like a sissy!).  
She turned her head to hide the tears that were treacherously rising in her eyes "Don't say a word, I need no comfort, nor your pity, it would kill me... Damn, I drank too much!"

Garrus stared at her speechless for a few moments, moments that seemed like an eternity to Robin. "Shepard..." but he couldn't go on, the words dying in his throat. He tried to hug her, and to take her face in his hands, but she struggled and stubbornly held face downwards. So he finally found the words to tell her "I didn't dare hope for it, I was even afraid to think about it. I love you".

She melted, the moment she had been dreaming for a long time had finally come.  
Robin whispered in his ear, "I love you, Garrus...but please stop calling me Shepard!" then touched his mouth with a finger, stroking his lips, which behind the hardened skin were soft and warm.

He took her face in his hands, slipping his fingers in her black hair, and kissed her gently but passionately.

His lips were soft and flexible, delightful to kiss. Robin felt a slight tickle on her cheeks, caressed by the rough edges of his mouth. His skin was so tough, resembling metal, but hot. Robin completely lost her sense of balance and fell into his arms, but he fell on his knees, dragging her down with him. They lost themselves in that moment, removed from space and time, and at the end found themselves almost laid on the floor, leaning against the wall, breathless and heaving, without knowing how it happened.

They began to undress each other slowly, exploring each other's bodies one piece at a time, continuing to caress and kiss one another's newly uncovered areas as their clothes fell to the ground. Then Garrus took Robin in his arms and laid her down on the bed, where he finished undressing her. Shepard felt totally at ease. She knew how perfect her body was, both athletic and feminine. She felt sure he found her beautiful and attractive, in spite of all their differences, and she could find the evidence reflected in his eyes, which were staring at her, entranced. He took off his trousers, laid himself down beside her, and began to touch her gently, in an ecstatic way, following the lines of her curves with the tips of his talons. She observed, delighted, the perfect form of his body, a triumph of elegance and strength, his mighty chest above a very slender waist. She dared not look further down for now, so she closed her eyes and started to caress his chest; she could feel the accelerated beating of his heart under his slightly and pleasingly rough skin. Then her hands worked their way down his waist, and lingered on his buttocks, which were much fuller and muscled than she had thought, if a bit flat. In the meantime, he had begun to give small bites on the edge of her jaw, then his tongue switched down to her neck...how the hell could he know this was one of the things she enjoyed best? She felt overwhelmed by desire, and her touch hurried between his legs. She could feel no testicles, but her hand got filled with what looked like, in almost every way, a human penis ... there were no spikes, nor other strange things on it, it was smooth and wet, and she was wet too.

It didn't seem real...everything worked perfectly, all fears for their physical differences vanishing in seconds. Not only on the battlefield were they one, but here, too, they understood each other without effort, their bodies moving as in a dance, in perfect harmony.


	2. Tales, dreams and confessions

First of all I want to say hello to my first follower, and thank you ^^

I wrote this story during the year 2011 and published it here on with another title, but it was soon trolled by some people -using fake accounts- who disliked my headcanon of Garrus Vakarian and so they felt the urge to demolish me, destroy my enthusiasm, murder my muse and reset my good mood to zero to safeguard their pixel hero from the fans who didn't share their view.

I soon stopped publishing here and in the end I have even deleted the story in order to delete the insults, but now I have decided to re-publish it hoping someone might still enjoy a fiction written before the release of ME3 :)

2. **TALES, DREAMS, AND CONFESSIONS**

It was night, but neither of them was a bit sleepy; they had so much to tell, and to ask.

Robin and Garrus were sitting together on Cerberus' white leather armchair. The Illusive Man, Cerberus's leader and creator, if not else had good taste in furniture.

"When did you understand that you ... that you loved me?" he asked, looking astonished by his own words.

"I think it was on Omega" said Robin. "At the very moment Archangel took off his helmet...and under it, there was you! I felt a joy and a warmth that I never expected to experience again. And then after the gunship attack, I thought you were dead, and my heart sank. But at that time I was sure I was in love with lieutenant Alenko, so I told myself that it was due to the happiness of finding an old friend, and the pain of losing him so soon after… but Robin Shepard is a clever woman, and I can't fool her for long". She smiled. "And you? What about you?"

Garrus opened his eyes wide, feigning innocence. "Who...me? Well, I guess I've always been. As soon as I knew you for what you were, I fell in love with you. I could tell you that I have a thing for human females, but it's not true. In fact, I've always feared that any romance between us was impossible, because of our physical differences ... but now, I realize that sometimes we lay nonexistent obstacles in front of ourselves. Because I've never been more comfortable with anyone than I am with you".

Robin did not answer, but instead laid her head upon his shoulder. She had never been better than when she was with him. She knew she would have been happy anyway, even if making love with her turian had turned out to be tricky or disastrous, because of the allergic reaction. Both had feared it because of the different chemistry of their amino acids, levo for her and dextro for him. The ship scientist, Mordin Solus, had scared them to death with all of those pseudo-scientific speeches about the possibility of anaphylactic shock and other unpleasant things due to incompatibility between their species.  
But what could a salarian know about sex?  
And, above all, the first contact between humans and turians dated back a mere thirty years before, and it had not been a friendly one. So, how many human-turian romances had there been before them? We are probably the first couple to experiment with it, thought Robin. She found the thought oddly thrilling. She was suddenly struck by the idea that the wonderful compatibility they had discovered was a gift from heaven for brave people, free from prejudice as they were, able to go beyond the conventional schemes.  
She thought of his hips, which looked purposely shaped to allow easy support for her legs when they made love standing up; it certainly worked wonderfully. She had always wondered if she could ever kiss his mouth, so stiff-looking, and now she couldn't stop craving contact with his soft, warm lips. And with his velvet tongue...drier than a human's, it gave her totally new sensations compared to those she already knew well.  
But it was morning already, and they had a long difficult day of battle ahead. It was time to wear their armor, wield their weapons, and go do their duty. She scheduled a rendez-vous with Garrus for dinner in her cabin and promised to get him some delicacies for turians, since he confessed to her that the onboard menu for dextro cuisine was rather monotonous. They kissed once again, embarrassed by the armor-after all, they had to resist until the evening-then tried to clear the languid gazes from their faces (although the dark circles around their eyes, due to the lack of sleep, were impossible to erase).

It was evening again aboard the Normandy. The mission had been more difficult than expected that day, and Robin had gotten a bad blow to her ribs; they were still intact, but sore. They were sitting on their usual sofa, having dinner. She was playfully feeding him small bites of food, one at a time. The resemblance of this action to a mother bird feeding her chick was not lost on Robin; inwardly, she smirked.

"That will teach you to behave like a baby-sitter with your crew! That Jacob… he pulled us off the main mission to chase a ghost. I never liked that man. -I mean, instinctively, with no real reason… at least before today".

Robin felt a little uncomfortable at his words. "You're saying that I'm paying too much attention to the personal problems of my crew? I just want everyone to be focused on the mission, and have no other distractions."

"Yes… the mission. You know what, Robin? Sometimes, indeed more and more often lately, I desire a quiet life in a colony on a green planet ... I mean, on OUR farm, with a large family and a dog in the garden." He smiled. "I'd like to forget about Reapers and Collectors. The soldier's life is exciting when you're a young hothead with no bonds, but now I'm beginning to care a lot for my skin, because I have you."

Robin smiled at the thought of the two of them growing potatoes on Mindoir, but then she was overwhelmed by a feeling of peace and quiet, and realized she was very sleepy. "Garrus, did you ever have an emotional bond ... I mean, have you ever been in love before? The girl you once talked about, I mean the turian girl, you know ... the one with whom you had the tiebreaker. Where is she?" she asked him, trying to keep her voice nonchalant.

"Ah, yes, Serina!" Garrus's eyes went suddenly bright, but then became sad and gloomy. "After that night, we were… engaged, as you would say. We promised one another eternal love, and so on. But then our working lives separated us. I was on the Citadel as a C-Sec officer, she was on a planet at light-years away...We wrote each other for a time, and we could only meet once every two months or so. But one day she wrote me that a very rich son of a..ehm…of a very rich man asked her to marry him, and she could not reject the offer. You know, a life full of ease. She was very beautiful, and she took the opportunity life was giving her. Carpe diem, and all that. I couldn't offer that much to her. Just my love ..." he said, wistfully, staring into memories.

"And then what happened?" asked Robin while keeping his large left hand interlaced with hers, gently caressing the big fingers.

He stared at her for a while, looking straight into her eyes. "And then it happened that I met you, and I was sure I would spend the rest of my life consuming myself with a platonic, impossible, and probably not even mutual love."

She kissed his hand, very moved by his words. "And you've never been with anyone else?"

He looked very embarrassed by this question, and didn't answer for a while. Finally, he spoke: "Well, on Omega there was an asari dancer and I… stayed with her for a period for pure…ehm…hormonal venting. But every time, after the sex, I felt even more lonely and desperate. You were dead, although my heart told me you were not. But my heart had already deceived me once."

There was a moment of silence; he looked lost in his memories.

"That evening, when I was besieged by the gangs of mercenaries, I was sure I would be dead very soon. But that was fine, because life had wiped away anything I cared about. I had nothing to keep me in this damn galaxy anymore. That night I knew I'd soon see you, and so I did, although not in the way I thought…" He said these last words with a trembling voice.

Robin nestled in his arms, listening to his heart beating, letting herself be lulled by the rhythmic rising of his chest. Soon, she was sleeping. He continued stroking her hair gently, then took her in his arms and laid her in her bed. He lay next to her, and then he, too, fell suddenly asleep.


	3. A matter of justice

Thank you for following this story, and an extra-hug for those who will take the time to write a small comment :)

3. **A MATTER OF JUSTICE**

The days went by, mission after mission, and the crew recruitment was almost complete.

Commander Shepard's charisma had had the effect the Illusive Man was expecting, and now the Normandy could count on a group of exceptional specialists and fighters.  
There was a general atmosphere of optimism aboard the ship in spite of what was awaiting them. Everybody put their full trust in Robin and her military skills, and all had the feeling that they would survive the impending suicide mission. Robin Shepard had worked hard for the success of that mission; she had fully upgraded the ship and the crew's weapons and armor. She had also found the time and the ways to help all the members of her crew with their personal problems, so that everybody was focused on the mission with no distractions. And in doing so she had gained the full loyalty of everyone aboard.

Garrus was the only one who hadn't asked for anything; she was sure that this was because he was such a gentleman that he didn't want her to waste time and resources on him. Because of the hurried way in which the crew members had all been recruited, most had unresolved issues, personal problems and the like and Garrus was no exception.

That night at dinner she addressed the issue; he was kind and cheerful as usual, always trying to make her laugh, and she adored him for this.

"Garrus, listen...everyone involved in this mission asked me for a personal favor before jumping head-first into a black hole from which there's no return. And I did it willingly, because these people are risking their lives under my command...are you sure you have nothing left open that you want to settle before throwing yourself into that portal?"

Garrus choked on the bite he had just taken, then took a deep breath. "Robin, I have every intention of coming back from that place! What about our farm and everything else? My life with you has just begun, and I won't watch it end so soon! We'll come back alive and well you'll see…" he said smiling at her, trying to look optimistic, but his gaze was less convincing than his words.

"Garrus, I'd love to live another one hundred years with you, at least, but we have to face the truth! We could die in that portal, the Normandy might not return from Omega-4, no one has ever returned…"

Silence fell. Robin waited for him to speak.

After a while, Garrus did. "Do you remember Omega? I was left alone with the three worst groups of mercenaries in the entire galaxy. I was alone because a turian named Sidonis, he was one of my men too, had betrayed us all. That night I was distracted, and deceived by a ruse, so it gave the mercs the opportunity to kill my entire squad. Sidonis had been threatened with death, so he betrayed me and his squadmates to save his disgusting skin. I want to see him dead, Robin. I want to put a bullet in his head with my Viper and avenge my squad."

Robin was shocked. "I knew nothing about it, but… if I wouldn't have asked you, would you have continued living with such a burden on your soul?"

Garrus took a long while to answer. "I've been seeking him ever since then, but he's always hidden himself very well, that sewer rat. But I discovered his hideout just yesterday! He's on the Citadel," he said with a hint of satisfaction, as if he could foresee Sidonis lying on the ground dead.

"I want you to come with me to the Citadel, Robin, and help me to flush out the rabbit from his hole. So I will finally avenge my men and sleep at night."

****

The taxi reached the industrial district's square where Sidonis was sitting quietly on a bench. After the Geth attack, the Citadel was very different, the quarters delimited and inaccessible; access was subject to submission of a special permit. It had not been easy to gain entrance to the industrial area, but at last they were there. Robin and Garrus looked at each other, he indicating a well-dressed turian who was sitting in front of them. She nodded and got off the taxi.

"Is that you, Sidonis?" she asked him in a loud voice.

He winced abruptly. "Shhhh... don't utter that name, you want to see me dead?" He watched stealthily around himself like a frightened rabbit.

Robin felt a sense of disgust for the fellow; he kept his shoulders hunched, and his gaze was cowardly and mean. But she decided to give him a chance, and also wanted to judge him for herself before letting Garrus deliver the mortal blow. She put herself in the trajectory between Garrus and his target, and induced Sidonis to speak, asking him why he had done what he had done, and listened to his pathetic excuses. The more she talked to him, the more her disgust grew towards him.

"Damn! Robin, could you please get your lovely head out of my way?" said Garrus into Robin's HUD.

She did not need asking twice. "I'm sorry, Sidonis, but I can't help you."  
She turned and walked away from him. The bullet flew through the air, and the turian ended up face-down in a pool of blue blood.

The taxi sped away and the Normandy took off soon after.

"You know, at first I wasn't sure I'd let you kill that loser...I wasn't sure it would make you feel better. You don't have a vengeful nature. Then I wanted to be sure Sidonis deserved to die. I tried to give him the possibility to justify his actions, but I suddenly understood that you were right about him, and your judgment on him wasn't clouded by rage or overshadowed by a thirst for revenge. That bastard had no excuses, except his cowardice. I feel guilty for having doubted you. You wanted justice, not revenge." She smiled at him, looking for his forgiveness.

"Shepard, you were great, as always. You saved me from feeling guilty and from the doubt of having done the wrong thing. I might have had some remorse by now, but thanks to you I feel better than ever. I'm at peace." He returned her smile.

He was so at peace that he fell asleep soon after dinner.

Garrus woke up many hours later and realized that Robin had already gotten out of bed, but she wasn't in the room. He was suddenly caught by the terrible thought that she had gone out on a mission without him. You're getting soft, Garrus said to himself. He got up and turned on the light, the clock showing half past five. At that very moment, the bathroom door opened showing Robin in a pretty white short dress, supported by two thin straps.

"Nightgown? That's the name, right?" Garrus aked her.

Turians didn't wear clothes for sleeping, and so weren't familiar with the names for these garments. Being their skin very thick and their planet very hot, they were used to sleeping completely naked.

"Baby doll," she answered, "it's considered very sexy by human males."  
She was wearing a facial expression he had never seen...she looked like she was going to pounce on him and eat him alive.

"You look like a goddess and smell very good," he said, ecstatically watching her.

"I was no longer sleepy, so I took a shower...I meant to wake you up with a kiss."  
She flashed him a mischievous smile.

"Oh...ehm ... you're very romantic Shep...ahem, Robin! But you'd have had a nasty surprise, you don't know what the breath of a turian smells like, early in the morning." He laughed. "You know what? I'll be back in a moment."

He was back after a few minutes, turning on the music player that was on the bedside table. He chose a collection of mood songs.

Robin approached him, crawling across the bed. "I like this music...this song has some nice bass that reminds me of your voice. Did I ever tell you what your voice does to me?" she whispered in his ear, then climbed astride him and began to caress him gently along the gap between the two skin plates that were hiding his sexual organ. A turian male didn't get the same type of erection as a human man, but his penis, located in the lower abdomen, came out during sexual arousal. It was, in fact, a retractile organ. Robin had often wondered, in the past, why Garrus was so desperately flat between his legs; now she knew, as she now knew why he was wet. And the reason was that turian males, while well-endowed, secreted their organs on the inside of their bodies. They were differently structured from humans, whose genitals were on the outside, exposed to every kind of trauma.

Robin felt that her touch had had the desired effect, and took full advantage of it.


	4. A very simple mission- Jack's redemption

"Shepard, the Illusive Man wants to see you in the briefing room."

"Ok, EDI...thank you."

Robin finished feeding her fish and took the elevator to the second floor.

"Shepard, we found a wrecked Collectors vessel adrift and picked up a distress signal from a turian interceptor that was attacked by it. It seems that the turians have managed to damage the enemy ship, which now looks abandoned by the Collectors. We can take advantage of this occasion to recover some of their technology."

Not again! Another last-minute mission, the unplanned ones that occur without warning and disrupt travel plans. But this time, it seemed really important. Taking possession of the technology of their enemies could give them a bit of an ace up their collective sleeve. Shepard looked at the galaxy map: the place where she was going to board the Collectors' ship was not so far from the Normandy, and it was on the route she had planned to take for the mission of the day.

"Joker, program changed, use the new coordinates."

She went to the third floor, where Garrus's workstation was, and where it was very easy to find him in the morning, performing his calibrations. She told him about the change in plans and that he must prepare to go out on a mission, then called Jack via transmitter and told her the same things.

Not that Jack was in need of great preparation. Shepard had never seen her wearing armor, and barely even clothes; her non-apparel made almost entirely of tattoos was the limit of decency. But the poor girl had so much element zero inside her body that wearing armor would have been pointless, only a hindrance. As for her appearance, it was irrelevant, as virtually no one ever saw her anyway. She remained holed up 24 hours a day in the ship's hold, isolated on the lower floor, and in the darkest corner she could find.  
Robin decided to get Jack out for this seemingly simple task to distract her from her thoughts. So far she hadn't brought her along on complicated, risky missions, where the squad members had to watch each others' backs and blindly trust their comrades. As a skilled tactician, she well knew that a poorly-prepared team not operating at peak efficiency was a death sentence for all concerned.

Shepard had done all she could to help Jack. She had brought her to the research facility, now abandoned, where she grew up, and where she had been transformed into the biotic phenomenon she was. This, at the cost of depriving her of childhood, the love of family and friends, and human affection in general. Inside that structure everybody hated her, the other children, the guards, everybody. She was kept isolated in a dark and dingy room, and brought out only to fight with other children; when she killed them, she was rewarded with intravenous injections of endorphins. Robin thought that if Jack hadn't been a good soul, she would have become a monster instead of the lonely, unapproachable girl with the arrogant attitude that Shepard could see.

They had blown up the research facility, now just a rambling wreck. Robin had hoped that this would bring Jack a bit of relief, but she had not seen big improvements in her attitude after that day. She wondered if the poor soul would ever be able to overcome her childhood trauma. The mission that day seemed the ideal opportunity to know her better and to test her behavior in teamwork.

Shepard, Garrus, and Jack got into the Kodiak, which then took off from the Normandy and entered the Collector ship. The three got out the shuttle and found themselves in a dark corridor; their eyes began to get used to the darkness, and they noticed that the ceiling was caked with what looked like insect eggs, seamless, all leaning on each other.

"Looks like a beehive!" said Jack in her usual detached voice.

They arrived in a brighter open space, but the scenery was the same. Robin noted that, mingled with heaps of strange eggs, which were everywhere, even on the floor, bonded to each other by a substance similar to honey, there were piles of human corpses in various stages of decomposition.

"It's...terrible!" managed Garrus.

"Yes, and those aren't eggs, but the pods we saw on Horizon, holding the prisoners paralyzed by seeker swarms. But these pods are now empty."

They advanced along other corridors and rooms, looking for alien technology, and looking for clues to the carnage. Robin found several interesting things, including a strange tapered weapon that seemed made of scales like a pine cone. She fired at a group of capsules, and from the gun came a white and continuous beam, with wavy trajectory; it was a bit unstable, but reduced the capsule-heap to a pile of ashes.

"This could come in handy!" said Robin, while throwing an accomplice's glance at Garrus.

They continued searching until they reached a large platform with a console. Robin tried to interact with the weird computer until they heard the voice of EDI, the Normandy's AI. With her usual butler voice-tone, she informed them all that the ship was reactivating, that it was a trap, and that they had better leave quickly. She said this in the same way that she would have announced that tea was ready and if they didn't hurry it would become cold.

"Ah, I also noticed a strange anomaly in the distress signal that turians launched from their ship. In fact, the turians normally send a second code-signal to avoid falling into traps like this, but in this case the second encoded signal has not been sent. It 's very likely that the Illusive Man knew it was a trap. "

"Thank you, EDI" said Robin with a lump in her throat.

She and Garrus looked at each other briefly, and Jack had the impression that the two communicated using telepathy.

"Hey lovebirds, sorry to disturb you, but things here are going to hell fast...we should move our butts if we want to save all three of them. "

"Shepard, I studied the map of the ship, and I found a path that could allow you to get out quickly and without encountering too many enemies. The collectors are heading to the point where you are now. Disconnecting."

"Well, I didn't think I would be testing the new weapons so soon...come with me."

The three sped away in the opposite direction from which they came, following the directions sent by EDI. They did not meet a soul for several minutes, until ... "Look out!" shouted Commander Shepard. They had arrived at a room that looked more like a cave, where hidden behind the trenches of what looked more like rock than metal, humanoid beings with beetle-heads greeted them with a hail of shots of various kinds.

Robin was happy to have Garrus with her, because he was the best sniper she'd ever met in her life-he was even better than her, and every time the collectors peeped out from their shelter to take aim, he detonated their heads with a single shot.

Jack, from her shelter, was throwing flashes of blue light of various shapes, and each time she did, a large number of enemies was thrown against a wall, or to the ground dead.

Robin resisted the temptation to use the weapon found just before, the one shaped like a pine cone to which she had not yet given a name; she preferred to keep the ammunition in case of an even more unpleasant encounter than that. A few moments later, there was only silence, and before them lay a carpet of corpses. Too easy, she thought.

"They did not expect to capture Commander Shepard in person with the signal-trap...they were not prepared for firepower such as ours," Garrus said to her, as if he had read her thoughts.

They ran to the exit door, but it shut in front of them, and there was no way to open it.

"I knew we wouldn't get out so quickly" Jack said with a grin of satisfaction. The biotic had confessed that, after the conditioning received in the facility research, she took pleasure in killing; that was readily apparent in her face now.

"Well, you will have the chance to have a lot of fun today!" Robin told her with a knowing smile.

"Oh, so lucky, better than the amusement park!" said Garrus sarcastically. "Let's go have some fun, then."

"Shepard, I managed to open another door on the opposite side of the wall, if you hurry you should not ... "

"Hey Captain, not to hurry you or anything, but I don't want to lose another Normandy, and this one has leather seats that are just dreamy..."

"We're coming, Joker, get ready to dart away at the speed of light."

They ran towards the open door on the other side of the room, down a hallway, but then, right between them and the tunnel to the exit, they found themselves face-to-face with something they had hoped never to meet: a giant being, his head identical to that of a Collector, but with a body shaped like a jellyfish. It was a 'thing' they had already faced at Horizon, and it had been a hard fight. The Praetorian!

It had been a tough battle from which they had emerged victorious but battered, and the Collector's ship managed to escape with half of the human colony prisoner in the pods. Robin remembered she had run under the monster's fire to destroy its regenerative shields, allowing her teammates to kill it in the brief moment it was unprotected. But she got almost killed performing the heroic act.

It was time now to test the new weapon. Shepard took up the Collector Particle Beam and ran under the giant jellyfish-looking monstrosity. 'Collector Particle Beam is a good name for this weapon,' she thought. She never lost contact between the white ray-wave and the body of the monster, trying, at the same time, to avoid the deadly blows it was throwing at her, while Garrus hit the monster straight in the eyes and other vital points with his Viper.

All of a sudden she heard a voice shouting "My attacks are ineffective!" Turning her head to look at where Jack was, Robin lost eye contact with her enemy for a split second. The Praetorian took advantage to strike her down. Her shields were already gone from the previous attacks, so she was thrown several feet across the floor. She didn't rise.  
Upon witnessing this scene, Jack screamed like an ancient celtic warrior and rushed towards the enemy, throwing flashes of blue light. Garrus remained motionless for several seconds after seeing Robin fall to the ground unconscious, but now he kept trying to hit the monster's eyes with his sniper rifle.

It was almost over. The Praetorian's armor had begun to ooze a yellowish liquid. Jack was almost under its tentacles and continued to hit it with biotic attacks of all kinds.

BOOM! The creature emitted a burst of energy that threw Jack down; she, too, failed to rise. Their enemy's shields had regenerated.

Garrus realized that the lives of the two women, his own, and, perhaps, those of everyone on the Normandy (which was under fire by the enemy ship), depended on him. He ran to see if Robin was still breathing, feeling her pulse which was weak but present. He took the weapon lying on the floor beside her and began to hit the Praetorian without respite, not even trying to defend himself against its attacks. He couldn't afford to lose contact of the beam with the armor of the enemy.

"We turians have a thick skin, and it's not just a manner of speaking...I hope it's tough enough to withstand this!"

The Praetorian continued to hit him, but he never ceased the contact of the particle beam. Garrus began to feel a great pain in his arms; the attacks had pierced his shields, then his armor, finally his skin.

He didn't bother to check if his arms were bleeding or not; he did not want to look away from the target, not even for an instant. He felt a sharp pain in his right hip, and smelled smoke; hoping it was just the padding layer of his armor burning, he went on fighting.  
Suddenly the beam ceased; the energy cells giving life to the weapon were depleted. But the enemy was not yet dead. It was reduced to a pulp in many places, almost all of its eyes were blind, three of the tentacles were detached, and one was hanging with no control. But it was not dead, and Garrus knew he had precious few seconds to finish it before it regenerated its shields. He rushed to assail it with punches and kicks-after all, he was an ace in unarmed combat skills-but suddenly he heard a gunshot behind him, and the Praetorian lay dead.

Robin had regained consciousness. Her vision was blurred, and she did not comprehend at once what was happening, but seeing Garrus in that situation gave her an adrenaline rush that sharpened all her senses. She seized the Viper that Garrus had left next to her, and fired a shot into the only eye that remained to the creature.

Garrus fell to his knees panting. He did not yet know how badly injured he was, but did not want to look at his arms or hip, still needing adrenaline to get out of that place. He got up and limped towards Robin, holding his flank with one hand. She managed to stand up and pointed to Jack, who was lying on the ground a little farther on, unconscious. The girl's shaved and tattooed head was bleeding, but she was alive. Robin stooped to hoist her onto a shoulder, but Garrus stopped her and took Jack, then nodded pointing to the exit.

Garrus laid Jack gently on the back seat of the shuttle, and collapsed with a grunt of pain next to her, while Robin began to drive the vehicle out of the ship.

"Joker, we're coming, come and get us. "

"About time Shepard, I was going to come down and tell you to hurry up."

The Normandy roared off to avoid the blows of the Collector ship and vanished with a bang at hyper-light speed.

****

It was evening on the Normandy, and Robin and Garrus were in the medical room. Garrus's arms were wrapped in white bandages soaked with medigel, and his flank smelled of ointment for burns. But the turian was standing up, enjoying the compliments of the whole crew, who in turn went to the room to congratulate him. At last along came pretty Kelly Chambers. Taking advantage of the occasion, and of being the ship psychologist, she entertained herself for a long time talking to Garrus, touching his arms, touching his hips, and asking him what his emotions were at that moment.

Robin, who was sitting on the bed beside him, with a nice bandana of white bandages on her forehead, felt the sudden urge to extend to Chambers' green eyes the same treatment she had proffered to the eye of the Praetorian. Sickened by the show, she finally found the strength to stand up.

"I'm going to find Jack" she said, glancing at them both.

Garrus looked at her with a frustrated and helpless expression. "Yeah, I guess I'll catch up soon..." he said "onboard psychologist permitting, of course."  
He was bothered by the ways of Kelly Chambers, but he was too much of a gentleman to tell her to go to hell.

"See you later then..."

Robin walked into the cargo hold on the lower floor, where Jack, the moment she had regained consciousness, had wanted to return.

She found her lying on her couch, immobile and soft like a rag doll.

"Shepard!" she heard her say softly "come back later."

Robin approached, and sat on the edge of the couch. Jack's face was completely bathed in tears, mixed with mascara, decorating her skin with black ripples.

"You look like a kitten" she said, smiling.

Robin had never been able to approach that girl within more than a few feet away. She had never managed to scratch the skin of the shell in which Jack had enclosed herself years ago, and in which she kept her emotions locked.

It was now or never. Jack appeared vulnerable, almost like an abandoned puppy.  
She embraced the tattooed woman. Jack let her do it and began to weep again, slowly, wearily, in silence. Robin heard only deep breaths, and felt the damp patch on the shirt she was wearing widen more and more. They stayed this way for a while.

"I owe you my life. I thought that in such a situation no one would have taken the trouble to bring me to safety, but I'm important to the mission...right?" Jack asked this watching Robin with eyes that begged an answer that was "No".

Now that the barriers were broken, she didn't care to appear superior and indestructible anymore. It was the first time in her life that someone had hugged her without wanting sex from her. "Jack, we consider you an important part of our team, it's true, but you are a valuable friend to us all. Let us into your world; we all care for you. I always knew that if one day I was able to break your barriers, you would turn out to be a normal, fragile human being, but you never allowed me to approach" said Robin, holding Jack's bald head.

"Why do you want to be my friend? I'm hateful, intractable-and I've always prided myself on it. I've always rejected and snubbed your company..."

"Child" said a gentle and deep voice, accompanied by the familiar low sounds similar to the purr of a lion "we know that your past has been traumatic, and anyone in your place would have surrendered to it, but you are strong. Face up to it, and for the first time in your life become aware of your actions. If you need help, we're always here, ready to help you...you're important to us because we realize that, in your shoes, many of us would have become much worse people than you are. After all, you only have a bad temper."

"Garrus, you managed to set yourself free from Kelly's clutches?" asked Robin without turning her head towards him.

"It was a hard fight, but yes, I did. It's not easy to resist my charm, " he said, with blatantly false modesty. He was in a garrulous mood.

"You two are just good together, you know? Just great, the best fucking couple in the whole galaxy ..."said Jack right before falling asleep.


End file.
